U.S. Open final-round rating drops from last year

Rory McIlroy doesn’t have the ratings impact of Tiger Woods, at least not yet.

The final round Sunday of McIlroy’s wire-to-wire victory at the U.S. Open received a 5.1 overnight Nielsen rating, a 26 percent drop from last year (6.9), when fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell won.

It should be noted that last year’s Open — similar to the 2012 tournament in San Francisco — was held in the Pacific time zone, resulting in a later TV window and a larger built-in audience. The 2011 rating was level with two years ago, when Lucas Glover won.

Those who thought McIlroy’s coronation to his first major championship would resonate in the matter of Tiger Woods’ 1997 Masters victory were wrong. Much like McIlroy’s triumph Sunday, Woods’ march to his first major championship was a foregone conclusion, yet the final round got a 14.1 rating on CBS.

Woods’ last U.S. Open victory in 2008 got an 8.5 overnight rating. His 2000 wire-to-wire victory at Pebble Beach was an 8.8. The Open record for a final round is 9.3 for Woods’ 2002 victory at Bethpage State Park.